Sleepy fire
by chloemcg
Summary: One-shot. One night, Natsu and Lucy have a hard time getting their baby daughter to sleep and nothing seems to work. Can they work together to get their restless infant to sleep?


**Disclaimer: I don't own Natsu nor Lucy, I kind of own Nashi but not really. I own NONE of the characters in Fairy tail since they belong to Hiro Mashima and nobody else.**

 **Sleepy fire.**

* * *

"Shhh, shh...please don't cry...I'm begging you..."

Natsu yawned exhaustedly as he paced around the room with little Nashi wailing loudly right next to his sensitive ear. The tiny infant refused to do anything else for the moment as she screeched as loud as her little lungs would allow her. She hollered over her father's shoulder in distress as she shrieked so loud that it was beginning to make the poor Dragon slayer's eardrum bleed.

Nashi didn't go down.

She just cried and cried relentlessly.

The pink-haired man was at a loss.

This was getting annoying.

Neither Lucy nor himself had expected Nashi to be so difficult because back when she had first been born she seemed so sleepy and tired that they thought that the baby would be calm and just sleep the days away...oh, how wrong they both had been to make such a naive assumption that would probably cost them a ton of sleep. Natsu couldn't help but lower his eyes in total shame and embarrassment because he knew that the baby's crying would more than likely get Lucy some unwanted attention from the neighbours.

"Uuuungh," A sudden groaning caused Natsu's other ear to perk slightly.

Happy groggily lifted his head but his paws were pressing hard on his ears to try and block the loud sounds out. "Make it stop..." He pleaded softly.

Natsu felt like a total failure of a father here because his baby girl was crying hysterically and he couldn't do or think of anything to stop it, it made his heart squeeze in his chest.

Alas his saving grace came in the form of a certain Celestial wizard.

She held a bottle of a familiar white substance and it was so warm that the tip of the bottle was steaming from the probable amount of extra heat it was warmed with. Since Nashi was the daughter of a fire wizard, it seemed only natural that their daughter take to hot things. Lucy looked just as tired as he did, her eyes had huge bags spread under her beautiful rich brown eyes. Her pretty blonde hair was sticking out at odd angles and was all frizzy and knotty from a mix of lack of care and pure fatigue and exhaustion.

Natsu lifted his eyes towards Lucy, taking his eyes off of Nashi for a few moments, and took the bottle the young woman offered him.

"Here you go, Natsu...I hope she'll drink it this time..."

Natsu repositioned little Nashi in his arms without a single word and then lowered the teat of the bottle towards her mouth. The baby whined as she shook her head in refusal and pushed the bottle away from her, whinging all the while as she squirmed in a discomfortable manner.

The fire wizard groaned once more frustratedly, glaring at the infant he held.

 _Nnnngh! What do you want from us, kid?!_

Natsu looked to Lucy desperately and the blonde was stumped. She was sure that the baby was just hungry and besides, she was due for a feeding anyways...both new parents racked their brains for answers to this conundrum but came up short on what else to do now.

Lucy sighed exasperatedly and held her arms out to take Nashi from him.

"Here, let me take her..."

Natsu didn't even hesitate as he put the bottle down on the nearby counter and then gently thrust his small daughter into her mother's arms. The baby's squawking only worsened at that and poor Lucy could only wince in pain when she bounced on her feet and gently repositioned the infant so she could cry over her shoulder. Lucy rubbed Nashi's tiny back in circles to try and soothe her, but that didn't work either.

The two Fairy tail mages looked to each other cluelessly.

Babies were a handful enough already but a baby with potential rare Dragon slayer and Celestial magic was turning out to be extraordinarily difficult —Nashi just continued to wail as loud as her little lungs would allow her as she now carried on hollering over Lucy's shoulder.

Natsu looked almost just as lost as she did for a few moments, a big frown on his face. He put a finger to his chin in deep thought and let out a quiet hum while he racked his brain once more for answers. But then his whole demeanour seemed to change instantly and his tired expression lit up like a bright light in pitch black darkness.

"Wait a minute! Lemme try something..."

Natsu brought his hand out and clenched it into a tight fist, thus igniting it into flames. The flames blazing from his fisted hand were small and relatively well-contained so nobody had to worry about setting the house ablaze...at least not too much...

Nashi stopped crying within seconds and stared at the flames that burned brightly in her father's hand. Her eyes grew large with amazement and wonder, the tiny sound of sniffing was followed by the baby girl quickly starting to reach for it as she started to try and communicate to her parents that she wanted something, letting out little squeaky sounds that were admittedly pretty endearing while she was at it.

Natsu noticed his daughter's tiny pudgy arms reaching out for the crackling flames surrounding his hand.

"Hmm? You want this?" He asked her, in more of a statement then a question, even knowing she couldn't reply verbally. Nashi did, however, respond to the question by continuing to try and reach for the well-contained flames that rested in the flame wizard's palm. She even made little whimpers now as she pawed at the air, her mouth opened up, and she kept trying to lean forwards and get those flames.

That was all Natsu needed to know.

He gently held his palm out towards her, the baby instantly gurgled happily when she finally had what she wanted in her sight. Nashi promptly inhaled the fire and proceeded to suck it all into her little mouth. She slurped away at the crackling flames and sucked at it ravenously to prove that she was starved before that.

Lucy, in the meantime, was just stunned that Nashi could even eat fire at all despite how young she was. She glanced up at her husband with a perplexed and astonished expression etching all over her face.

"Huh...never would have thought that all Nashi wanted was your flames..."

Natsu shrugged simply in response. "Well, she _is_ the daughter of a _fire_ dragon slayer."

Then he took the baby back from Lucy and gently held her against his chest. The baby seemed a bit confused at first but quickly relaxed when she felt her father's body heat; Nashi let out a tiny coo when her eyelids finally started to drift over her sleepy little eyes. She affectionately rubbed her tiny cheek up against her father's chest and let out a contented baby noise. Natsu craned his head and gently pressed his nose up against Nashi's teeny face, rubbing the tip of it against her chubby plump cheeks and getting some giggly coos from her. Hearing those sounds made Natsu's heart become warm like the eternal fire burning inside of him.

The baby girl in his arms snuggled closer against him

The two parents watched their baby girl lay sleepily in Natsu's arms.

Nashi seemed to have been contented now that she quite literally had a fire in her belly and neither Natsu nor Lucy, no matter how exhausted and fatigued they were, could even feel more happy that there was finally a sign of peace. He sighed and rubbed at his forehead, yawning whilst he rubbed at his heavy eyeballs before glancing tiredly over at his Celestial spirit wife.

"We still need to get her to sleep..."

Lucy sighed with her husband and copied Natsu by rubbing the palm of her hand over her forehead to massage her temples. She pondered for a minute on what the both of them could possibly do to get their stubborn baby daughter to finally go down into the soft and gentle depths of slumber. Then her own eyes lit up when an idea came to mind.

"How about a lullaby?"

Lucy's suggestion only earned her a throated-croak of a noise from the pink-haired man who looked at her as though she had grown a third head or something. His response was plain and simple as he swayed exhaustedly on his feet.

"B-But I don't really sing, sweetie..."

Lucy just glared viciously at him. She shot back in a knife-sharp hiss of a whisper, her soft brown eyes sharpening to almost make her look demonic.

" _Natsu Dragneel_. I haven't slept in ages and yet I carried our daughter in my stomach for nine months, I'm super exhausted and you will help me or I will _kick your sorry backside out of this house so you'll have to mooch off of someone else!"_

Lucy's eyes burned with palpable rage and anger as her husband stared at her wide-eyed, fearful that she would make good on her threat if he didn't comply and just try and sing a lullaby for his daughter...not that he ever tried to sing before. He may not have sung before but he had to do it if he both wanted to get some more sleep and keep his residency in this house, with Happy.

Natsu rubbed tentatively at his throat and gulped.

Hard.

The only time the pink-haired pyro ever used his vocal chords like this would have to be when he used his signature "Fire dragon roar" ability; his throat felt dry and whenever he did swallow if felt quite sore. He thought of something he could sing try and to little Nashi and then he was taken by surprise when a beautiful singing voice interrupted him and he turned his head to face his wife in astonishment.

Lucy started to let a beautiful melody fly passed her lips before he even had a chance to say, or even sing, anything.

 _"Words are born into air  
And quickly fade out in the wind  
But they find their way inside you  
Where they live on forevermore..."_

Lucy lovingly rocked little Nashi back and forth in her swinging arms, her hips swaying in time with the beautiful melody that had just popped into her mind. Despite her voice being a bit raspy due to exhaustion her singing was so beautiful and angelic and it made a certain dragon slayer's heart soar.

Natsu knew this song!

It was the same one that the Silver key Celestial spirit Lyra sang, he recognised the lyrics. He had almost been distracted enough to completely lose himself before he had a chance to sing the next verse.

Natsu reached down and lovingly placed the palm of his hand on his daughter's forehead. She felt so soft and warm, she was such a precious little thing in his eyes. He lovingly rubbed his daughter's tiny head, feeling the little pink hairs atop her head tickle his palm, and he shook off some of his fatigue. He smiled softly and revealed the tips of his fangs that glinted in the moonlight that shone through the window.

He managed to make his voice work and he sang softly.

" _When skies are dark and full of rain  
Look inside your heart  
The light, so warm will and all aglow  
Shining just like the sun..._"

It was Lucy's turn to be amazed. She hadn't expected Natsu's singing to be as rich and dulcet as it was, sure his voice was a tad strained and a little bit raspy right now but he still had a quality singing voice that she was certainly stunned to hear. It was so nice that she couldn't help but spare him a quick sideways smirk of adoration.

She took over singing again from Natsu as she looked at Nashi whom seemed to grow more and more tired with every verse sung.

" _You can see, just how much you've grown  
How strong you are..  
A love will open up to you  
And it starts from the day that you,  
first heard those words..."_

Nashi yawned as she started to breathe slowly as her eyes dropped heavily over her eyeballs, the to and fro rhythm in which she moved helping to lull her into a deep sleep. Her mother and father's voices harmonised as they started to sing the at the same time despite how exhausted they each sounded and how hoarse their voices sounded due to how tired they themselves felt.

 _"When skies are dark and full of rain  
Look inside your heart,  
The light, so warm will and all aglow  
Shining just like the sun..."_

Lucy closed her eyes as she kept on singing, leaning her head against her husband's strong shoulder. She caught a quick glimpse of her husband's red Fairy tail mark as she tried her best to keep her eyes open and to not fall asleep on her feet right then and there. She fought back a heavy yawn of her own as she trailed off and Natsu carried on singing the lullaby that strangely made the both of them think of their good friend and guild friend/rival, Gray.

Neither of them knew why this song made them think of him but they carried on regardless.

" _You can see, just how much you've grown  
How strong you are..  
A love will open up to you  
And it starts from the day that you,  
first heard those words..."_

Lucy and Natsu finished the lullaby in a duet, the former still snuggling close to her husband who was blushing profusely thanks to the contact. Natsu and Lucy both grinned at one another as they both straightened themselves out and they both lowered Nashi into her crib, laying her down gently and discreetly as to not wake her up, and then Lucy reached into the crib and gently tucked the blankets around the sleeping baby.

Nashi's eyes were softly closed and her gentle breathing filled the room, she had put her tiny hand inside her mouth and sleepily suckled on her little thumb.

It was a very adorable sight, to be honest.

Natsu lowered his head and kissed his baby girl's forehead and then re-straightened his posture as he exhumed a long and tired sigh. He was exhausted beyond belief and he couldn't wait to slide back into bed, pull the blankets over him and snuggle with his beloved wife. He also couldn't wait to get back to dear, sweet sleep that sounded absolutely amazing to him right about now.

The thought of it made his heart flutter.

Lucy couldn't help but whisk a sideways glance to her husband. She raised a brow of confusion.

"Y'know, I never expected that you'd know so much about this."

"Me neither. I guess dragon parental instincts are pretty strong..."

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 **A/N: Here's a new Fairy tail one-shot filled with fluff!**

 **Its a Nalu fic with their new baby girl, Nashi. I made sure it was overflowing with cuteness!**

 **Hope you guys like it.**


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